Is there a solution to low voter turnout?

Sunday

HOUMA – Compare voter-turnout numbers between local and state elections and you’ll stumble upon something voting officials already know.

The more local a ballot is, the lower turnout will be.

Decisions such as last year’s gubernatorial election that included parish president and parish council contests drew nearly half of voters in both Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.

When voters decided on a potential tax increase to bolster levees in Terrebonne and a similar tax in Lafourche in a 2006 election that included School Board races, turnout percentages were in the 20s in both parishes.

Turnout dwindles to single digits when elections are concentrated in a single community. Fire-district propositions in Terrebonne have been decided by turnouts as low as 2.8 percent in recent years.

The numbers are distressing to people like Michael Flynn, a former Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce chairman, who says he served when interest in local issues was high.

As chairman, Flynn said he helped circulate a petition that, with enough signatures, gave voters the decision to lower the number of school board and parish council seats from 15 to nine.

The change was an enormous undertaking that elected officials attempted to block, Flynn said, but was eventually approved by the local voters.

Such participation may be endangered.

“The election is almost a celebration of democracy,” Flynn said. “Not enough people are celebrating.”

Ask someone why they don’t turn out to the polls – or why they haven’t registered – and they might tell you their vote doesn’t count.

But some believe the well-worn excuse isn’t as common as it used to be.

Brian Brox, a Tulane University political science professor who studies voter trends and turn-out statistics, said the disposition actually accounts for a very small number of people.

“That’s not to say the opinion isn’t out there,” Brox said. “But I wouldn’t use ‘common’ or ‘widespread’ as adjectives to describe it.”

Those who do vote regularly don’t do so under the impression that their vote alone makes a difference. They do it more out of a sense of duty, he said.

Brox said the factors that actually dissuade a voter from visiting the polls are cost related.

A parent who can’t afford a baby sitter is less likely to visit the polls, he said. Voters are also less likely to cast a ballot if they have not had the time to study the issues and candidates.

“It’s not a bad thing,” Brox said. “People are just busy, they have things to do.”

A major strategy of modern presidential campaigns now includes mobilizing people to vote in addition to convincing them who to actually vote for.

Some campaigns have begun co-opting techniques that have been proven at the small local elections, said Michael McDonald, a George Mason University political science professor.

One such technique that presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign has relied on heavily is dispatching volunteers to meet with voters face-to-face rather than using mail-outs and phone calls, McDonald said.

The latter are ineffective compared to one-on-one interaction with voters.

“It’s so powerful that you can have someone go to someone’s door and not only is the person who answers more likely to vote, but people in that household are more likely to vote,” he said.

Barry Bonvillain, a former parish president who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the position in 2007, is often credited with using the strategy while making his first bid for the spot.

“It’s the hardest route, but it’s the most rewarding,” he said. “People appreciate it.”

Stirring interest in a local election may be as simple as limiting the number of stand alone propositions offered up to the voters throughout the year.

In July, Bayou Cane Fire District officials asked the public to increase its property taxes, a measure that failed overwhelmingly with a 10 percent turn out.

Critics questioned why the district held the election in July when the millage increase would be the only issue on the ballot.

The stand-alone proposition cost taxpayers $1,200 to $1,500 per precinct to hold, or a total of about $35,000 .

“They think people are going to get out and vote and pass the issues,” Lafourche Registrar of Voters Sterling Diaz said. “That has backfired.”

The state eliminated a January proposition-only election date from this year’s election schedule and has done the same for the July election date as well.

Diaz and other voting officials say placing more ballot items on fewer election days would go a long toward getting higher turn-out.

“The electorate is getting tired of having to get out three and four times to vote,” he said.

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